Customers, employees nab Seattle pharmacy robber

Customers and employees of a downtown drug store jumped on a robbery suspect late Tuesday morning and held him for police.

Police say he had admitted to three other pharmacy robberies in Seattle.

At 11:40 a.m. Tuesday, a man armed with a knife tried to rob the pharmacy at the Bartell Drugs in the 900 block of Fourth Avenue. He demanded drugs from the pharmacist, but then customers and employees stepped in.

Police took the 33-year-man into custody, and he admitted to detectives that he committed the other robberies: in West Seattle, on Capitol Hill and, most recently, on Dec. 14 in the 800 block of Third Avenue.

In the robberies, the suspect usually implied that he had a weapon and demanded drugs.